entry nº 28 // 20180817

that same week, january rail pass week, let’s call it, i also visited hiroshima. it’s about an hour on the shinkansen from fukuoka. you basically just zip right over there. whole different city vibe from nagasaki, or kyoto… a bit harder to pin down, in terms of what the city feels like. expansive and built-up, a downtown that feels like it stretches on for quite a while, wide avenues, tall buildings all around, streetcars, again. some cities have a kind of easily-graspable profile; nagasaki felt like that. fukuoka’s not like that, i don’t think. boston is, probably. it’s hard to say what makes that so, really – some visual sum, combined probably with some density or accessibility of strongly defined landmarks, compounded by how big or small the city is to start with, and of course also how long you spent there, how much you were able to absorb, and of course this whole feeling’s going to be intensely subjective anyway, too. it’s interesting. 

another clear cool day, out here in hiroshima. i figured out a great system of strapping shoko’s camera, which i borrowed for these trips, to the strap of my backpack so it hung perfectly at arm’s length, ready to grab whenever i needed it. pretty solid minor breakthrough, there. 

the big food to eat in hiroshima is okonomiyaki, a kind of savory pancake, cooked teppanyaki style on a grill right in front of you. we eat it pretty regularly at home, or sometimes go out to this awesome mom+pop restaurant a couple minutes away from where we live; i’d even say it’s probably one of my favorite foods here in japan. it also quite reliably gives me stomach trouble afterwards? for some reason i just can’t quite fathom, since it’s not like there’s anything that crazy in there, stomach-reactivity-wise. hm. anyway, the okonomiyaki in hiroshima has soba noodles in the mix, too, so, big bonus, there. 

anyway, two atomic bomb cities in two days? it’s a lot. probably not a bad idea to have left some space in between, there, schedule allowing. i went to the atomic bomb dome, the peace memorial park, the peace memorial hall, and then the atomic bomb museum. lots to take in. the cenotaph (saddle-shaped concrete monument in the middle of the park) is haunting and beautiful. something about the stark, parabolic shape, though i can’t say why. it was funny and strange to see tourists coming by and taking selfies in front of that stuff. like, what’s the angle, on that? “yo we out here”? seems weird. 

part of the museum was under construction when i went in, which was too bad, but the rest of it was really well done. probably the highlight was these private viewing rooms, where you could go in and watch films of survivors telling their stories. could have spent hours in there, though again, it’s heavy stuff unless you’re a sociopath or something. 

had some time after that, so i headed over to shukkeien, a japanese garden. took a walk around the pond there. pleasant. clear-headed. winter afternoon sunshine. traffic sounds in the distance, beyond the walls of the garden. 

where i didn’t get to go is miyajima, a little ways out of the city. you’ve all seen it in the photographs – that big torii gate standing out in the water, there. next time, though. next time.